Alleged gun-planting costs Oakland cops $175K

A federal jury awarded $175,000 on Monday to a parolee who said an Oakland police officer planted a gun on him, causing him to be jailed for nearly two years for possessing a weapon illegally.

Lorenzo Hall, a rapper well known among local audiences, should receive $100,000 in general damages and $75,000 in punitive damages for his treatment by Officer Ramon Alcantar, the jury determined after a weeklong trial in the San Francisco courtroom of U.S. District Judge Maxine Chesney.

Hall was attending a wake for his aunt on Avenal Avenue in East Oakland when Alcantar arrested him June 23, 2006, for numerous weapons offenses, including being a felon in possession of a gun. A confidential informant had tipped police that a man named "Zo" was carrying a gun, the Police Department said.

But Hall said he never had a gun and that after he was put into the back of a patrol car, Alcantar told him through the open window, "I found your gun."

Hall began yelling out "to anyone in the vicinity that the officer was trying to put a gun on him," according to the suit he filed last year. Alcantar then rolled up the patrol car's windows, the complaint said.

The gun turned out to belong to another man who had hidden it in a car parked near the wake, said Ben Nisenbaum, Hall's attorney.

Hall spent four months in jail before posting bail. In February 2007, prosecutors alleged that he was a three-strikes candidate, and his bail was increased. A judge later determined there was enough evidence to go to trial.

Altogether, Hall spent another 18 months in jail before prosecutors dropped the case in August 2008.

"My client was in custody for 22 months on a charge that was bogus," Nisenbaum said. "The badge is not a free pass."

In court papers, attorneys for the city denied any wrongdoing, saying Alcantar had reasonable suspicion to detain Hall based on the informant's tip.

Hall matched the description provided by the informant and had a loaded .40-caliber handgun in his waistband, police said.

A spokesman for Oakland City Attorney John Russo had no immediate comment on Monday's verdict.